ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) has released a scorecard highlighting performance of senators for the years 2015-16.
As per scorecard MQM’s Col (R) Tahir Mashhadi declared as Senator of the Year with an overall score of 95% and attained first position. Pakistan People's Party Senator, Sassui Palijo attains first position among women senators with an overall score of 51% whereas federal minister for finance Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar stands at the 40th position (last rank) with an overall score of 20%.
Average attendance of senators in committee meetings is 51% and average attendance in plenary sessions of the Senate is 63.3% (compared to 61% in the national assembly). As per this scorecard overall average score for performance of Senate remained 41%.
Pildat carried out a systematic assessment of the individual parliamentary performances of the senators during the 13th parliamentary year commencing from March 12, 2015 and ending on March 11, 2016. As per this scorecard, five senators secured top five positions with regard to their performances in the Senate. These include Senator Col (R) Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, Senator Muhammad Usman Kakar, (Balochistan, PMAP) with 76% overall score, Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, (Federal Capital, PML) and Senator Saeed Ghani, (Sindh, PPPP) both with 73% overall score, Senator Muhammad Talha Mehmood with 68% overall score, Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak, (KP, PTI) and Senator Dr. Jehanzeb Jamaldini, (Balochistan, BNP-M) both with 66% overall score.
While senators from the Federal Capital and the three smaller provinces figure in the top five positions, none of the Senators from Punjab, the largest province, could make it to the top five positions.
It is interesting to note that senators who are all parliamentary party leaders occupy the Top 5 ranks. Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani and deputy chairman, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri not included in the assessment exercise as their powers and functions differ greatly from that of a regular member of the Senate.
As per scorecard top five positions for women included Senator Sassui Palijo, Senator Sitara Ayaz, (KP, ANP) with an overall score of 49%, Senator Nuzhat Sadiq, (Punjab, PML-N) with overall score of 43%, Senator Sehar Kamran with an overall score of 42% and Senator Gul Bashra, (Balochistan, PMAP) with overall score of 41%.
Leader of the house in senate Raja Muhammad Zafar-ul-Haq (Punjab, PML-N), attains a score of 62% and is on the 8th position whereas leader of the opposition in senate Aitzaz Ahsan with an overall score of 57% is at 10th position. Federal Minister for Information Senator Pervaiz Rasheed is at 36th position with a score of 27%. Amir Jamaat-e-Islami, Senator Siraj-ul-Haq with an overall score of 63% is at 7th position.
According to Pildat the performance scorecards of senators focus on three main aspects of the parliamentary role of a senator that included Oversight, Legislation and Representation. Col Mashhadi of MQM is top performer in Oversight whereas Senator Mushahid Hussain is top performer in legislation.
